Our mission is to educate legislative candidates about the importance of insurance coverage for Wisconsin citizens with autism.

• Wisconsin Autism Insurance NOW is a coalition of advocates, families and providers who support legislation that requires insurance companies to cover autism services.  (Click here to see a list of our members)

• The CDC released a report in February 2007 which indicates that the rate of autism is dramatically increasing, and 1 in 150 children are currently impacted by autism spectrum disorder. 

• There are treatments available to help address this urgent public health concern.  For example, research shows that intensive in-home early intervention dramatically increases the rate of normalcy among children with autism. 

• Research shows that early intensive behavioral treatment, a program that begins treating children in their toddler years, has a dramatic impact and can improve outcomes to render some children indistinguishable from their peers after treatment.  Many lose their diagnosis and require no special education or support services upon entering school.  Others make more moderate gains but learn critical skills that allow them to attend school, make friends and be safely integrated into their communities.

• According to the Harvard School of Public Health, the cost of care for an untreated child with autism is more than $3 million over the child’s lifetime.

• The state has a medical assistance program in place to get families the treatment they need, but unfortunately this program is inadequate and Wisconsin families are being left behind.  There are currently over 350 Wisconsin children with autism on the waiting list to receive autism treatment services through the state waiver program.  There are many more kids who have been recently diagnosed, but have not yet qualified to be on the waiting list.  This waiting list is constantly growing, and the longer these kids wait to receive autism treatment services, the less likely they are to achieve “normalcy.” 

• If autism treatment services were covered by group insurance policies, more children with autism would be receiving the treatment necessary to help them function, and the waiting list would be reduced, thereby reducing the stress on the autism waiver program and ensuring quicker access to treatment.  This private-public partnership would ensure that families who have group insurance are covered for treatment through their insurance policies, and the state waiver program could then be reserved for families without group insurance coverage.

• More and more states across the country, such as Texas, Minnesota, Louisiana and Indiana, are coming together in a bipartisan effort to pass legislation to require insurance companies to cover autism services. 

• In the 2007-08 Wisconsin legislative session, a bipartisan bill (SB 178/AB 417) which requires group insurance policies to cover treatment for those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder overwhelmingly passed the State Senate with bipartisan support (25-9), but was stalled in the Assembly.

• Please support Wisconsin families with autism, and proposals that require group insurance policies to cover autism treatment services so that more children can receive the treatment they need, and have the chance to achieve normalcy.